The Difference of Sleeping and Death
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: Say that we only ever hear half of what we know about, that what we think is true isn't entirely true. Say that, in at least one possible lifetime, the people we thought were gone were actually harmed and needed time to recuperate. What if Lilo and Nani's parents were still alive, but in an incapacitated state? And say that some time passed before they recovered and met Stitch?


Creation began on 04-16-12

Creation ended on 12-25-19

Lilo & Stitch

The Difference of Sleeping and Death

A/N: To my knowledge, this sort of scenario has never been written before, but there is a big difference between sleeping and being dead. This was pretty much inspired by Atarah Derek's story, _The Meaning of O'hana_, but with a twist so that there's no tragedy too extreme. Here goes.

The rainstorm outside seemed to be getting worse to Nani's perception as she looked out the window. It had been three hours since it started and she and Lilo's parents had left to go restock on food at the supermarket less than an hour ago.

_Maybe I'm just imagining things,_ she thought, going back to the couch and picking up a magazine to skim through.

Within minutes, however, Nani had dozed off; she hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night and Lilo had woken her up earlier than she had intended to get up and the caffeine she had ingested from the coffee was wearing off now.

Thud! She had fallen off the sofa and quickly got up, checking her watch and finding that she'd been asleep for at least forty-five minutes, but she felt like it had been longer, and it was still raining out.

"Yikes," she panted, going upstairs to check up on Lilo. "Lilo? Are you asleep?"

She entered her sister's room and found her still asleep, holding a framed photo of the family they had taken during a picnic at the beach. Nani couldn't help but smile.

Ring-ring! The phone downstairs started ringing; Nani could only assume it was their parents calling to inform her that they were on their way back now.

"Hello? Pelekai residence," Nani uttered.

"Miss Nani Pelekai?" An authoritarian male voice responded on the other end.

"Yes?"

"I'm calling regarding your parents."

"Wha…what about my parents?" Nani asked, worried.

"There was an accident on the highway, and several cars crashed." The man explained.

"Are they alright?"

"We don't know. They're being transported to the hospital right now."

-x-

The following morning, Nani had taken Lilo to the hospital with her to see their parents; Lilo was worried when her sister told her that they were in an accident and would be here. Nani had asked a receptionist if anybody with the name "Pelekai" had been admitted when they were directed to the room their parents were placed in.

_Oh, no,_ she saw their mother and how bandaged her head was as she laid in the bed, and their father's left leg and right arm were bandaged up, as well.

Lilo sat in the chair in front of her mother and simply waited for her to wake up, not knowing how bad the accident was.

Nani spoke with a doctor and asked how bad the car crash was.

"They're probably some of the lucky few that survived," the doctor told her. "Only a minor fracture in their skulls and two bone fractures in his right arm and left leg, but the only problem so far is waiting for them to up. They're completely unresponsive."

Nani became worried when the word "unresponsive" was uttered.

"You mean…like… They're drain-dead?" She asked quietly, afraid of the response.

"No," he answered her. "We checked for brain activity after they came out of surgery. It's possible that they're just comatose for the time being."

_Comatose?_ Nani had read up a little about that, how it meant a person was just unresponsive after suffering from an accident and how their brain needed time to recover from the trauma, almost as much as their body would require. _But…what if…they don't wake up?_

As Nani continued to converse with the doctor, Lilo continued to sit in front of their mother, and then held her hand.

"Please, wake up, Mommy," she whispered, and then her mother's limp hand slowly held onto hers, as if indicating that she wasn't dying any time soon.

-x-

_"I recommend that for the time being, until we get a reaction from them, you should take up the role as your sister's legal guardian,"_ one of the hospital's social workers had informed Nani, an hour after she had spoken with the doctor.

"_They might be like this for several weeks…or a few months,"_ another doctor had revealed to her; because comatose patients were an unknown they rarely dealt with, they weren't sure how long they would be in this state.

While she was being cautious and taking precautions, it didn't ease Nani's worries about their parents' current state. It wasn't just the fear of them not waking up. It was the fear of how Lilo might react if they didn't pull through. And then the fear of being separated from Lilo; as irritating as she could be every now and then, Nani didn't want to lose her sister if anything terrible happened to their parents.

-x-

A lot happened in the time their parents were in their coma. Several weeks became a few months, just as the doctor had informed Nani, but then a few months had spanned into over a year, in which part of the Pelekai family had been extended to a degree by the arrival of several out-of-towners. The first was Lilo's pet dog, which had been discovered to be a genetically-engineered, experimental extraterrestrial made by an evil genius extraterrestrial that had been accompanied to retrieve it by a one-eyed, three-legged intergalactic so-called "expert" of Earth knowledge and culture. And then came many of the experiment's older relatives, a total of over six-hundred-twenty-six of them.

In many respects, the Hawaiian Islands, and Earth by extension, had become the refuge of a menagerie of out-of-towners that needed a new setting to fit in, and Kaua'i was the major attraction due to several of the aliens having unique skills that could benefit the people living there.

Ring-ring! The phone rang and Nani picked up.

"Pelekai residence," she spoke up as Lilo and Stitch were eating breakfast. "What?"

At first, she dreaded the call because it might've been someone complaining about Lilo and Stitch causing some unnecessary damage to parts of the town when dealing with an experiment, but then she had a look of relief on her face as she tightened her grip on the phone.

"Uh, thank you," she told the caller. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

Hanging up, she turned to Lilo with a small smile on her face.

"That was the hospital," she explained to her. "Our parents are awake."

-x-

The most Stitch had ever heard about the Pelekai parents from Lilo or Nani were that they were not around due to an accident that occurred prior to his, Jumba or Pleakley's arrival when he had escaped from being sentenced to a desert asteroid in the farthest reaches of space. In the beginning, however, because he didn't ask them much about their parents, Stitch just assumed they were gone.

"_It was raining and they went out for a drive," _Lilo had told him once.

To know that their parents weren't dead was a good thing, but they didn't know anything about Stitch, or Jumba and Pleakley, or even Stitch's cousins, for that matter. How would they react to knowing that they've been invaded by friendly aliens from another galaxy?

"You should wait here, Stitch," Lilo told him, standing outside the room her parents were inside. "I'll explain to them about you in a while."

Stitch nodded in understanding, but that didn't stop him from listening in on the conversation about to take place.

"Lilo?" He heard her mother's voice when she saw her younger daughter walk in, probably looking only a little older than when she last saw her over a year ago. "Is it really you?"

"Hi, Mom," he heard Lilo respond to her. "It's great to see you awake."

"Some of the people have been talking about you a bit," he heard a male voice and assumed it was Lilo's father. "They say you raise quite a stir every now and then, though they didn't explain why that is."

"It's…better if I explain everything to you. But first, there's someone I'd like for you to meet. His name is Stitch. Stitch."

Stepping into the room, the alien introduced himself to these two adults that were gone for over a year prior to his arrival on Earth.

"Aloha," he greeted. "Meega Stitch."

"Oh, my," Mrs. Pelekai gasped; she didn't expect to be greeted by some sort of…blue koala.

"I'm pretty sure that 'Stitch' isn't a real name," Mr. Pelekai expressed, just as surprised by Stitch's appearance, "in at least Iceland."

"You should meet his cousins once in a while," Nani suggested to them; the goal was to help introduce their parents to everyone one step at a time, starting with at least Stitch…then Jumba and Pleakley.

"So, uh…just…what are you, Stitch?" Mister Pelekai asked, trying not to show fear in front of Stitch. "Are you a…talking dog? Or…a talking bear…that's blue?"

"Meega alien," Stitch explained, and then revealed his second pair of arms and antennae. "Meega very friendly."

"He had coffee again," Lilo expressed; as much as Stitch was trying to be himself in front of her parents, he was trying too hard. "Stitch has been living with us for over a year now, and a lot has happened since then."

Aloha

A/N: I guess this could be a cliffhanger ending because we have no idea where this could go. But I definitely wanted to get this story finished after starting a long time ago like several other stories that got started on but never finished. Merry Christmas, readers!


End file.
